How Clint Eastwood’s ‘American Sniper’ stoked the American culture wars

The Washington Post ^ | January 20, 2015 | Terrence McCoy

[Cincinatus' Wife]

[SNIP]

The exchanges are just the latest eruption in a long culture war, analysts said, with lines clearly demarcated. “As screenings have sold out, conservative media has manned barricades against liberals who have attacked the movie or the idea of lionizing Kyle,” conservative David Weigel wrote for Bloomberg. He noted that much of the controversy involves the extended battle over guns — and gun control — and pits pro-Iraq war conservatives against anti-war liberals.

But it also hints at another gulf in American politics: the plummeting number of Americans who serve in the armed services, which has given rise to what experts call a widening cultural divide between civilians and combat veterans. During World War II, more than 12 percent of Americans served in the military. Today fewer than .5 percent do, and many belong to a demographic that military analyst Thomas Ricks called “socially isolated, politically conservative.” That growing chasm has resulted in a modern America in which few grant much thought to soldiers except for ritualized reverence.

If there’s any cultural force that exacerbates misunderstandings, it’s movies like “American Sniper,” according to Karl Eikenberry and David Kennedy in the New York Times. To many conservatives and members of the Armed Services, Chris Kyle was a man beyond reproach, and to criticize him disrespects both the military and those who choose to serve.

“The greatest challenge to our military is not from a foreign enemy — it’s from the widening gap between the American people and their armed forces,” the authors wrote in 2013. “… The media offer us images of drone pilots, thousands of miles from the fray, coolly and safely dispatching enemies in their electronic cross hairs. Hollywood depicts superhuman teams of Special Operations forces snuffing out their adversaries with clinical precision.”

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The Left really hates such displays of American strength, virtue and resolve.

All vestiges of American exceptionalism, as exemplified by - soldiers, WASPs, cowboys, human space explorers -- all hope, heroes and history must be stamped out in the liberal academic final anti-American push to transform American culture - have it submit to postmodernism.

Here they identify the enemy and then proceed to discuss how to weaken a culture that sustains free-market capitalism, private property, resource "exploitation" and pioneering:

Spaceflight,culture and ideology - overview: Ideology, Advocacy, and Spaceflight—Evolution of a Cultural Narrative "The ideas of frontier pioneering, continual progress, manifest destiny, free enterprise, and rugged individualism have been prominent in the American national narrative, which has constructed and maintained an ideology of “Americanism” — what it means to be American, and what America is meant to be and do. In exploring the history of u.S. spaceflight, it is useful to consider how U.S.space advocacy movements and initiatives have interpreted and deployed the values and beliefs sustained by this national narrative.the aim here is to illuminate the role and function of ideology and advocacy in the history of spaceflight by examining the rhetoric of spaceflight advocacy.

Starting from the premise that spaceflight has played a role in the American national narrative and that this national narrative has played a role in the history of spaceflight, this paper examines the relationship between spaceflight and this narrative. Examining the history of spaceflight advocacy reveals an ideology of spaceflight that draws deeply on a durable American cultural narrative — a national mythology—of frontier pioneering, continual progress, manifest destiny, free enterprise, rugged individualism, and a right to life without limits. this ideology rests on a number of assumptions, or beliefs, about the role of the United States in the global community, the american national character, and the “right” form of political economy. According to this ideology, the United States is and must remain “number one” in the world community, playing the role of political, economic, scientific, technological, and moral leader. that is, the United States is and must be exceptional. This ideology constructs americans as independent, pioneering, resourceful, inventive, and exceptional, and it establishes that liberal democracy and free-market capitalism (or capitalist democracy) constitute the only viable form of political economy. The rhetoric of space advocacy exalts those enduring American values of pioneering, progress, enterprise, freedom, and rugged individualism, and it advances the cause of capitalist democracy.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

".........And of course there is the third major crisis: the need to shrink the government, restore federalism and reduce the debt will be on the new president's plate – assuming that he or she can, unlike Reagan, get past the first two crises. Which brings me to the second note of caution. It is impossible to restore America politically and economically if it is not restored culturally. Reagan understood this, I believe, as exhibited by the words in his farewell address. But he never seriously addressed the issue – either because he didn't have time or perhaps he lacked the belief that he could make a difference. We can never know. But, the matter of the culture is critical to the success of the conservative restoration project. For in fact, culture trumps politics.

Twentieth century progressives – especially Antonio Gramsci -- grasped this idea. They understood that in order to radically alter the politics of the United States, they had to first undermine bourgeois culture and replace it with a more libertine version. They understood that the flow of influence runs downhill from culture to politics. And so they set about changing America's culture. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Today, the left controls virtually all of the opinion-molding organs of American society: the media and the arts, public schools, foundations, seminaries, museums, libraries, higher education, the federal bureaucracy, the legal profession and so on. Classic American culture celebrated individual liberty, limited government, free market capitalism, strong morals grounded in religion, intact traditional families and vibrant cohesive communities, individual responsibility and the meritocracy, and American Exceptionalism in particular, the idea that America is a model and force for good in the world. That culture has been supplanted by one that values: group rights, big government and crony capitalism, loose morals and banishment of religion from the public square, global American weakness and disengagement, and an obscene focus on the warts in American history.

It is little wonder that in such a culture, the least experienced, most anti-American, anti-Constitutional, radically left, lawless president in American history could be elected and re-elected.

We must recapture the culture. It took the left a century to overthrow America's classic culture. It may take us a century to win it back. A program for doing so is for another essay. What we need now is not just another Reagan, but a succession of triple C presidents who understand the cultural issue, as well as the foreign and economic policy issues, and who have the requisite ideas, understanding and political skills to bring about a conservative renaissance. Through their leadership we can take back our country. At the moment, I'll settle for a first person in that line. Which of the two dozen contenders is that special person? I pray that we find out soon." Source

[Diogenesis]

[mabarker1]

I think the simplest solution to this whole mess is send ALL the leftist/commies to a spot in the Sahara Desert and let them deal with life by themselves. No Welfare/EBT etc.

Then We can fix this Country back to what it should be.

[Old Sarge]

The Left is furious that “Sniper” has sucked the oxygen away from “Selma” - and that’s all there is or was to the debate.

[HotHunt]

[Farmer Dean]

The leftists are worried that the targeting will shift from Iraqi insurgents to THEM.

[Rembrandt]

“The Left is furious that “Sniper” has sucked the oxygen away from “Selma” - and that’s all there is or was to the debate.”

The Hollyweird people have spoken on which was the best movie, but after the vote of the people willing to spend their money to see pics, it’s clear that Hollyweird is severely out of touch.

Kind of like Reagan trouncing Carter for his first term - media was stunned!

[Maceman]

How Clint Eastwood’s ‘American Sniper’ stoked the American culture wars

The "culture wars" that were invented by the likes of Saul Alinsky and initiated by his totalitarian leftist followers and enablers in the Democrat, Socialist and Communist parties?

[Old Sarge]

Ahhhhh, I remember those days...

[Hostage]

As a mouthpiece for the Left, the Washington Post does their best to dampen the burgeoning box office of a cinematic hit that portrays an American who did all he could for his brothers and sisters in arms fulfilling his duty and honoring American ideals.

This WAPO piece can be summed up in one sentence:

“American veterans today don’t matter like those of WWII.”

But as Ronald Reagan would say:

“It’s all about Box Office Gorby!”

And what a Box Office haul it is!

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

Looking at the chart in the above link, can WAPO say ‘blockbuster’?

And lastly, does WAPO even stand a chance to attract any viewers away from this galloping blockbuster of a movie?

[tanknetter]

+1.

Sniper hasn’t stoked the culture wars.

Sniper HAS interrupted and distracted the Progs as THEY try to stoke the culture wars.

Selma was supposed to cruise to a great box office and accumulate Oscars in a march to victory at the Academy Awards. Which would be used to reinforce the narrative being pushed in the wake of Martin, Brown and Garner.

Sniper has stopped that narrative cold.

[randita]

IMO, this article makes way too many generalizations to be taken seriously.

Admittedly, I did not know much about Kyle prior to seeing the movie. I knew nothing about the controversies this article has raised.

In the movie and I did not view Kyle as a “hero” per se. I saw him as a flawed individual (as we all are) who was a loyal soldier who had and used his special skills to perform a job that needed to be done. It wasn’t pretty and it left scars on him and his family, but he served his country to the best of his ability. His sense of duty to country and his fellow soldiers is to be lauded, but it came with a dear price.

He was not a “cowboy” on the battlefield. He did the grunt work along with the rest of them.

Whether or not the Iraq War was worth it is a subject apart from this film and the Left’s attempt to make this about the Iraq War is an obvious attempt to discredit everything about it. They hate the U.S. military, especially when it come to projecting strength in the world. They would much rather have the U.S. military function as an international meals on wheels.

Kyle’s story is one of a true blue soldier - one you would be proud to serve with and grateful to have along side of you in a foxhole.

[VR-21]

Another, perhaps simpler way to describe the ‘gulf’ in cultures would be that the military is oriented to vanquishing this country’s enemies, while American leftists prefer to collaborate with them.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The anti-America crowd really has their panties in a wad over it, don’t they?

[Old Sarge]

One shot, one kill... ;)

[bert]

not enough died at kent state

[txrefugee]

The fools don’t realize that some day they may be depending on the military to keep them alive in their own cities.

[rrrod]

Rules...there are no decent registered Democrats. No registereed Democrat should be allowed with 100 yards of children. No registered Democrat or their offspriings should be allowed to serve in the US military.
NO APOLOGIES!

[Biggirl]

....Or these fools forget that such a movie, “American Sniper” could just be one of the top 3 movies of the 10 to end up winning the most important award, “the best movie award?”

The other two films in that top 3 are: “Boyhood” and “Birdman”.